New Jersey Drone Sightings May Not Be Drones. By Professor Will Austin.

eEridani · Sunday at 8:16 PM

Chip said:
I can understand why the general public is fearful of drones. This is an image that sticks in the mind of a cruel, soulless instrument of death. How incredibly irresponsible of the federal government to be coy and play games with people's minds and pocketbooks.

View attachment 179980

Gimp is such a great tool.

Chip · Sunday at 8:18 PM

eEridani said:
Gimp is such a great tool.

What is Gimp? BTW are you not willing to share what classes you teach?

Chip · Sunday at 8:20 PM

GNU Image Manipulation. You think it matters whether the image is real or digital creation?

Zbip57 · Sunday at 8:30 PM

Wanbli said:
[...] in this world we find ourselves, anything is possible. Choosing to accept or reject the possibilities is up to the reader.

I'm currently reading a book by Robert J. Nemiroff called, "FASTER THAN LIGHT - YOUR SHADOW CAN DO IT, BUT YOU CAN'T". It's fascinating.

He describes, with proofs, the various ways things actually can travel faster than light (superluminal speed), and goes into all the crazy sorts of things that result from that. He starts off by providing simple examples that anyone can understand, and then constructs ever more complex examples from that.

At each step along the way, he poses a question with multiple choice answers to make sure you're still keeping up and understanding what he's saying. And then he explains exactly why each of the answers is either right or wrong.

The quizzes are often humourous.

One example, without giving away the details, was:

Question: Is it possible for [...]

A. Certainly it's possible. Why not?
B. No, definitely not possible, because [...]
C. Only theoretically possible, as long as [...]
D. Everything is possible if you put your mind to it.

He then explains the correct answer, starting by immediately eliminating the last one. He says, D is obviously wrong, duh. I mean, just think about it. No matter how hard you put your mind to it, you can't turn yourself into a cow! Don't believe me? Try it! See? You're still not a cow. Ergo, conclusively, D is false.

It's a brilliant book. But I frequently need to go back to reread a previous section to figure out why I keep getting the answers to every next question wrong. Eventually the light bulb goes on. Wow. It's mind-expanding.

In the introduction he says you can purchase the book in paper hardcopy or eBook version. The electronic version features links to further online references, so you can find more facts to verify each of his examples. When he mentions Einstein's theory of Special Relativity, it's underlined with a hyperlink directly to a copy of Einstein's paper.

He says the only reason anyone would want to buy the paper hardcopy version of his book (without the hyperlinks) is that it looks good sitting on a shelf.

Chip · Sunday at 8:33 PM

Zbip57 · Sunday at 9:01 PM

eEridani said:
There are personal drones that are about that size for sale today. Jetson and Pivotal are just two of them.

That brings up another question. What exactly is a "drone"?

The FAA thinks a drone is no different than any model airplane. Anything flying that is remotely piloted and is unmanned is an "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle", which would exclude personal drones like the Jetson and Pivotal.

So when people report seeing a truck-sized "drone", how do they know it's unmanned?

We all know what our DJI drones look like, and FPV drones, and we know what large fixed-wing ones like the Global Hawk and Predator drones look like, and even all the corresponding Chinese versions thanks to @Berf.

But is something like a TOW missile not also a drone? They're capable of sustained flight over significant distance, unmanned, and remotely steered via a rapidly unspooling wire. Or would that be a tethered drone? How about a cruise missile, or one of them guided gliding bombs which sprout wings after they've been dropped?

There are some hugely expensive jet turbine powered scale model aircraft that could be identified as truck-sized drones. But who would risk flying one of those at night?

So what exactly are people in New Jersey seeing when they report spotting a 20ft "drone"? Still no actual photos??

eEridani · Sunday at 9:06 PM

Zbip57 said:
That brings up another question. What exactly is a "drone"?

The FAA thinks a drone is no different than any model airplane. Anything flying that is remotely piloted and is unmanned is an "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle", which would exclude personal drones like the Jetson and Pivotal.

So when people report seeing a truck-sized "drone", how do they know it's unmanned?

We all know what our DJI drones look like, and FPV drones, and we know what large fixed-wing ones like the Global Hawk and Predator drones look like, and even all the corresponding Chinese versions thanks to @Berf.

But is something like a TOW missile not also a drone? They're capable of sustained flight over significant distance, unmanned, and remotely steered via a rapidly unspooling wire. Or would that be a tethered drone? How about a cruise missile, or one of them guided gliding bombs which sprout wings after they've been dropped?

There are some hugely expensive jet turbine powered scale model aircraft that could be identified as truck-sized drones. But who would risk flying one of those at night?

So what exactly are people in New Jersey seeing when they report spotting a 20ft "drone"? Still no actual photos??

I think the two I mentioned are VTOL experimental aircraft, if we go technical, and not considered drones by the FAA. But at least one of the photos of a "car sized drone" from the NJ "swarm of reports" was identified as one of these.

Zbip57 · Sunday at 9:15 PM

eEridani said:
at least one of the photos of a "car sized drone" from the NJ "swarm of reports" was identified as one of these.

Thus indicating that any unidentified object in the sky must automatically be a "drone".

Chip · Sunday at 9:30 PM

eEridani said:
I think the two I mentioned are VTOL experimental aircraft, if we go technical, and not considered drones by the FAA. But at least one of the photos of a "car sized drone" from the NJ "swarm of reports" was identified as one of these.

Wait a second. Let us get this on the record. You are saying that that we have at least one confirmed credible sighting of a drone subsequently identified as a VTOL experimental craft? If so, here is your mike drop!

Chip · Sunday at 9:34 PM

Chip · Sunday at 9:39 PM

mavic3usa · Sunday at 9:40 PM

Here you go

Zbip57 · Sunday at 9:44 PM

Chip said:
You are saying that that we have at least one confirmed credible sighting of a drone subsequently identified as a VTOL experimental craft?

No. It wasn't a confirmed sighting.

It was a stock clip, shot in full daylight, spliced into a media report so it could be played alongside the typical "testimony" of someone claiming to have seen a "drone". Since it's an "unusual" type of aircraft, it could be more easily passed off as something meaningful relevant to New Jersey.

It's like EVERY media piece EVER that mentions ANYTHING to do with drones always had to include a stock photo of a DJI Phantom, just so everyone knows what a drone is supposed to look like.

Now any video clip of FAA-mandated nav lights and strobes at night works just as well.

Chip · Sunday at 9:57 PM

A private for profit company using New Jersey residents as guinea pigs? Who makes money off it? There is another mini-osprey with folding wings which is also a person of interest now wanted for questioning by our forum.

Chip · Sunday at 10:10 PM

Zbip57 said:
No. It wasn't a confirmed sighting.

It was a stock clip, shot in full daylight, spliced into a media report so it could be played alongside the typical "testimony" of someone claiming to have seen a "drone". Since it's an "unusual" type of aircraft, it could be more easily passed off as something meaningful relevant to New Jersey.

It's like EVERY media piece EVER that mentions ANYTHING to do with drones always had to include a stock photo of a DJI Phantom, just so everyone knows what a drone is supposed to look like.

Now any video clip of FAA-mandated nav lights and strobes at night works just as well.

Shoot. One confirmed report of one SUV sized drone would be all we really need. I guess no mike drops tonight. But, I recommend sitting in one of those chairs in your backyard tonight, have a hot cocoa or hot toddy, and marvel at the mysterious night sky. That's what I'm doing here.

Zbip57 · Sunday at 10:27 PM

Chip said:
I recommend sitting in one of those chairs in your backyard tonight, have a hot cocoa or hot toddy, and marvel at the mysterious night sky.

Brrrrrrrrrr.

It's going down to -17°C (1°F) here tonight.

mavic3usa · 2024-12-23T11:55:20-0500

I guess something like this will not make it to America anytime soon; for various reasons:

Droning on and on... · 2024-12-23T11:55:58-0500

Wanbli said:
So, in this world we find ourselves, anything is possible. Choosing to accept or reject the possibilities is up to the reader.

That's apparently the (fantasy) world you live in. In the (real) world I live in impossibilities are endless. Like the prospect of a genetic alteration could be engineered to give the recipient the ability to see protons with the naked eye.

But then, ya gotta know some quantum and subatomic particle physics to know why this is impossible.

Same with antigravity.

Ignorance is bliss. Greer can only fool those lacking the requisite basic understanding of how gravity works. Look up General Relativity and spacetime metric... good place to start.